Concrete on Pern?

[Yvonne]

Quick question - is there concrete on Pern? I cant seem to figure out if it's canon or not... Concrete was around in Roman times and used in major architectural buildings including aquaducts and the Colliseum but fell out of use in the Middle Ages (although it did continue to be used sporadically for canals and such). It gradually regained popularity as a building material and some canals and other structures from the 1600s onward in Europe were made of concrete. Then in the mid-1700s it was used to build a lighthouse in England using concrete that would set underwater(hydraulic lime). Portland cement was invented in 1849, and reinforced concrete structres began to appear around 1900. Concrete dams were built in the 1930s.

Anyway, with Technicians on the prowl, I thought this might be a good question to get cleared up asap since concrete is such a widely used and *ahem* 'foundational' material.

[Heather]

"In its simplest form, concrete is a mixture of paste and aggregates, or rocks. The paste, composed of portland cement and water, coats the surface of the fine (small) and coarse (larger) aggregates. Through a chemical reaction called hydration, the paste hardens and gains strength to form the rock-like mass known as concrete."

DEFINE: portland cememnt - cement that is manufactured from limestone and clay and that hardens under water."

So if Pern has these ingredients then logically they could make cement. I mean, they figured out how to make flamethrowers, surely they can figure out how to mix cement as long as limestone and clay are available. To my thinking that means, yes, cement could be on Pern... but is it? ;)

[Avery]

Makes perfect sense to me!

[Suzee]

I would say most likely there would be cement on Pern. I'm fairly certain AIVAS would have that information and it would have been retained.

As we're working with 19th century technology I'd say it was probably fairly common.  But I'd also like to hear from Emma and Clancey.  Maybe the Canon Dragon will chime in.

[Chelle]

Actually I had this discussion before since one of my Master Smith's in another club used it for his master project.
Concrete, in its simplest form, ie: the sort used for roman roads should be prevalent on Pern especially for use in construction in the south since they have freestanding dwellings there most of the time, not cut into the rock, and it is a Pass which means no wood buildings should be safe really.

And we actually got into the really interesting part....volcanic dusts were used as the binders back then and they were better than others and made it more resistant to corrosion over time. Of course Pern has volcanic dusts! So yeah, on our Pern we actually have marked roads so we'd have to have concrete for them unless they were made of brick or gravel. When Eimi and discussed discussion for the harper hall, she seemed to think it would take forever due to the quarrying of stone. I was like, why wouldn't they just use concrete? So yeah.

Anyway, my two cents-I say yes. I just don't see them having the regular road maintenance that the Romans did unless the traders are doing some of it since they'd be using most of them except for the ones the tithe trains use.